Borders and intercultural visions have come to occupy an important place in Chinese studies as in many other fields of social science and historical studies. Whether seen as one country and state "among equals" or as a civilization at the centre of its own "world order," China was involved in many kinds of real interactions with the outside world and thereby also engaged in cognitive image making processes. This book attempts to combine the two perspectives of border and vision, to which a third one is added: foreign policy. The guiding question is: What was the role of borders (boundaries, frontiers, limits) in China's perception and management of other peoples?



From the table of contents:

C. Lamouroux, The Song-Liao Border Dispute of 1074/75

J. L. Kurz, The Yangzi in the Negotiations between the Southern Tang and Its Neighbours (Mid-Tenth Century)

M. Eggert, A Borderline Case: Korean Travellers' Views of the Chinese Border (Eighteenth to Nineteenth Century)

M. Rossabi, Ming Foreign Policy: The Case of Hami

S. Dabringhaus, Chinese Emperors and Tibetan Monks: Religion as an Instrument of Rule

R. Ptak, Die Paracel- und Spratly-Inseln in Sung-, Yüan- und frühen Ming-Texten: Ein maritimes Grenzgebiet?

A. Graça de Abreu, Macao, Miguel de Arriaga, and the Chinese: A Note on the Failed British Occupation of Macao in 1808

T. O. Höllmann, Die Grenze zur Alishan-Region im Taiwan der Qing-Zeit